1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to a method of measuring the number of cells of microorganisms being present in food, medicines, cosmetics and water.
2. Description of the prior Art:
In the production and quality control of food, medicines, cosmetics and so on, the number of cells of small amounts of microorganisms contained in these samples must be measured in a short time. Moreover, a wide variety of microorganisms must be detected in a short time since the kinds of microorganisms incorporated into these samples cannot initially be known. For measuring the number of cells of microorganisms in a short time, there is mentioned a well-known method comprising hydrolyzing a 4-methylumbelliferone derivative (abbreviated as 4MU-derivtive hereinafter) with the enzymes of microorganisms contained in samples and determining the resulting 4-methyl-umbelliferone (abbreviated as 4MU nereinafter) with a fluorophotometer (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 144995/1982). This method is advantageous because the number of cells of small amounts of microorganisms can be measured in a short time. However, this method had a drawback that all the microorganisms contained in samples such as food cannot always be detected.